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First Look at Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007!

This week I have spent many hours reviewing, playing with, and learning more about the new Office 2007 (which will be released to retail markets in late January 2007).

I jumped from Microsoft Office 2000 to Office 2003 because I didn’t see any great need for the 2002 version. I must say though that I am honestly excited about this new version of Office. The 2007 version will have more of a initial learning curve for individual moving from 2003 to 2007 than those moving from previous version. The interface has had a really major overhaul. For the new user (or user who just uses very basic features of Office) I think it will open up a whole new world!

Example: A few months ago I began spending more time using PowerPoint 2003 to help prepare my Churches presentations. I didn’t read any instruction manuals but just dove in. I sort of muddled through picking up a little here and there. From the moment I opened up the new 2007 version though I immediately found many features I hadn’t been able to find before. The new Office uses what Microsoft calls a “ribbon.” On this context sensitive “ribbon” (Bar) are many commands that are visually easier to find and use.

Another cool feature is that when you move your mouse cursor over many of the items on the ribbon, the effect is temporarily applied to your text so that you have an idea instantly of what it would look like if you selected it.

The new Office not only has redesigned the Ribbon bar to make important functions easier to find, Microsoft has also built some exciting features to work with graphics into the program. The include a wide variety of 3D effects, reflections of pictures, etc. There is also built in support for Blogging!

Drawbacks:

While I really like the new changes and highly recommend the new Office, there are only two areas that may be a negative (one is easily fixed, the other is not).

1. New File Version: in an effort to add better security to office documents, Microsoft Office 2007 saves its documents/files in new formats. This could cause compatibility problems with those using older versions of Office. It only takes a few moments though to change the default “Save As” to an earlier version to make the files compatible with Office 2000-2003.
2. This version seems to require much more in the way of computer system resources and memory. This seems to matter mostly when first opening a program, but not too much after. I wouldn’t attempt to run Office 2007 on a computer more than a few years old.

Conclusion:

This is a really nice version of Microsoft Office. It has some really nice touches and will get you doing more complex things, more easily. It does require a better/faster computer than previous versions of Office though. I recommend it!

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